This Is Not Neglect. Not a Crime. Not Abnormal. WE Are Abnormal

The idea that kids can’t do anything alone till they’re 29 is NEW, as this vintage ad reminds us. A young child could run an errand, talk to an adult, be patted on the head without this being inappropriate, and lug home half a gallon of milk. All that was an integral part of our culture until relatively  recently.

It’s not that our crime rate is off the charts. (It’s at a 50-year-low.) And it’s not that predators, speeding cars and bullies are all waiting outside the window. It’s that we have been BRAINWASHED into believing that our kids can’t handle anything, that doom awaits them at every turn, and that without us by their side, all bets are off.

NOT TRUE. Kids need freedom and responsibility. Independence is rain to the garden. It’s what they grow on.

Do send them to the store. Or have your school make something like this happen school-wide, with the Let Grow Project. Your kid will rise to the occasion. And…

You’ll have milk.